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MICFuzzy : a maximal information content based fuzzy approach for reconstructing genetic networks

- Gamage, Hasini, Chetty, Madhu, Lim, Suryani, Hallinan, Jennifer

  • Authors: Gamage, Hasini , Chetty, Madhu , Lim, Suryani , Hallinan, Jennifer
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: PLoS ONE Vol. 18, no. 7 July (2023), p.
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  • Description: In systems biology, the accurate reconstruction of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) is crucial since these networks can facilitate the solving of complex biological problems. Amongst the plethora of methods available for GRN reconstruction, information theory and fuzzy concepts-based methods have abiding popularity. However, most of these methods are not only complex, incurring a high computational burden, but they may also produce a high number of false positives, leading to inaccurate inferred networks. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid fuzzy GRN inference model called MICFuzzy which involves the aggregation of the effects of Maximal Information Coefficient (MIC). This model has an information theory-based pre-processing stage, the output of which is applied as an input to the novel fuzzy model. In this preprocessing stage, the MIC component filters relevant genes for each target gene to significantly reduce the computational burden of the fuzzy model when selecting the regulatory genes from these filtered gene lists. The novel fuzzy model uses the regulatory effect of the identified activator-repressor gene pairs to determine target gene expression levels. This approach facilitates accurate network inference by generating a high number of true regulatory interactions while significantly reducing false regulatory predictions. The performance of MICFuzzy was evaluated using DREAM3 and DREAM4 challenge data, and the SOS real gene expression dataset. MICFuzzy outperformed the other state-of-the-art methods in terms of F-score, Matthews Correlation Coefficient, Structural Accuracy, and SS_mean, and outperformed most of them in terms of efficiency. MICFuzzy also had improved efficiency compared with the classical fuzzy model since the design of MICFuzzy leads to a reduction in combinatorial computation. Copyright: © 2023 Nakulugamuwa Gamage et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Missing health data pattern matching technique for continuous remote patient monitoring

- Arora, Teena, Balasubramanian, Venki, Stranieri, Andrew

Modeling cyclic crack propagation in concrete using the scaled boundary finite element method coupled with the cumulative damage-plasticity constitutive law

- Alrayes, Omar, Könke, Carsten, Ooi, Ean Tat, Hamdia, Khader

  • Authors: Alrayes, Omar , Könke, Carsten , Ooi, Ean Tat , Hamdia, Khader
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Materials Vol. 16, no. 2 (2023), p.
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  • Description: Many concrete structures, such as bridges and wind turbine towers, fail mostly due to the fatigue rapture and bending, where the cracks are initiated and propagate under cyclic loading. Modeling the fracture process zone (FPZ) is essential to understanding the cracking behavior of heterogeneous, quasi-brittle materials such as concrete under monotonic and cyclic actions. The paper aims to present a numerical modeling approach for simulating crack growth using a scaled boundary finite element model (SBFEM). The cohesive traction law is explored to model the stress field under monotonic and cyclic loading conditions. In doing so, a new constitutive law is applied within the cohesive response. The cyclic damage accumulation during loading and unloading is formulated within the thermodynamic framework of the constitutive concrete model. We consider two common problems of three-point bending of a single-edge-notched concrete beam subjected to different loading conditions to validate the developed method. The simulation results show good agreement with experimental test measurements from the literature. The presented analysis can provide a further understanding of crack growth and damage accumulation within the cohesive response, and the SBFEM makes it possible to identify the fracture behavior of cyclic crack propagation in concrete members. © 2023 by the authors.

Modeling the effects of particle shape on damping ratio of dry sand by simple shear testing and artificial intelligence

- Baghbani, Abolfazl, Costa, Susanga, Faradonbeh, Roohoollah, Soltani, Amin, Baghbani, Hasan

  • Authors: Baghbani, Abolfazl , Costa, Susanga , Faradonbeh, Roohoollah , Soltani, Amin , Baghbani, Hasan
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Applied Sciences (Switzerland) Vol. 13, no. 7 (2023), p.
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  • Description: This study investigates the effects of sand particle shape, in terms of roundness, sphericity and regularity, on the damping ratio of a dry sand material. Twelve different cyclic simple shear testing scenarios were considered and applied using vertical stresses of 50, 150 and 250 kPa and cyclic stress ratios (CSR) of 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 in both constant- and controlled-stress modes. Each testing scenario involved five tests, using the same sand that was reconstructed from its previous cyclic test. On completion of the cyclic tests, corresponding hysteresis loops were established to determine the damping ratio. The results indicated that the minimum and maximum damping ratios for this sand material were 6.9 and 25.5, respectively. It was observed that the shape of the sand particles changed during cyclic loading, becoming progressively more rounded and spherical with an increasing number of loading cycles, thereby resulting in an increase in the damping ratio. The second part of this investigation involved the development of artificial intelligence models, namely an artificial neural network (ANN) and a support vector machine (SVM), to predict the effects of sand particle shape on the damping ratio. The proposed ANN and SVM models were found to be effective in predicting the damping ratio as a function of the particle shape descriptors (i.e., roundness, sphericity and regularity), vertical stress, CSR and number of loading cycles. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the importance of the input variables; the vertical stress and regularity were, respectively, ranked as first and second in terms of importance, while the CSR was found to be the least important parameter. © 2023 by the authors.

Mothering ideology : a qualitative exploration of mothers’ perceptions of navigating motherhood pressures and partner relationships

- Williamson, Tricia, Wagstaff, Danielle, Goodwin, Jane, Smith, Naomi

  • Authors: Williamson, Tricia , Wagstaff, Danielle , Goodwin, Jane , Smith, Naomi
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Sex Roles Vol. 88, no. 1-2 (2023), p. 101-117
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  • Description: Good mother ideology refers to beliefs that women are only ‘good’ mothers if they adhere to the tenets of dominant parenting discourse, such as intensive mothering ideology, which prioritizes children’s needs and child-raising above all else. Undergirded by this ideology, mothers’ attempts to navigate the transition to motherhood are fraught with pressures, and the transition is associated with negative health outcomes for mothers and children; yet existing research gives little attention to the quality or dynamics of the partner relationship as part of this transition. The current study examined motherhood pressure and the impact on partner relationships through individual, semi-structured interviews with 19 mothers living in Australia who were 18 years or older in a heterosexual relationship with at least one child under the age of five. Thematic analysis revealed four key themes: discourses on motherhood: criticisms of mothers and internalised guilt; transformation of identity; entrenchment of gender roles through childrearing; and positive relationship dynamics: supportive fathers and challenging gender roles. This study contributes to the larger body of literature highlighting the complexity of dominant mothering ideology and its entanglement with and impact on partner relationships. Further, this study includes mothers’ perceptions of how they navigate these pressures within the relationship with their partner and the family unit. These findings have implications for programs to support mothers and other caregivers, as well as challenge unrealistic standards for motherhood. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Moxonidine increases uptake of oxidised low-density lipoprotein in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells and inhibits atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice

- Wang, Yutang, Nguyen, Dinh, Anesi, Jack, Alramahi, Ahmed, Witting, Paul, Chai, Zhonglin, Khan, Abdul, Kelly, Jason, Denton, Kate, Golledge, Jonathan

MSCET : a multi-scenario offloading schedule for biomedical data processing and analysis in cloud-edge-terminal collaborative vehicular networks

- Ni, Zhichen, Chen, Honglong, Li, Zhe, Wang, Xiaomeng, Yan, Na, Liu, Weifeng, Xia, Feng

  • Authors: Ni, Zhichen , Chen, Honglong , Li, Zhe , Wang, Xiaomeng , Yan, Na , Liu, Weifeng , Xia, Feng
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Vol. 20, no. 4 (2023), p. 2376-2386
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  • Description: With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoTs), an increasing number of computation intensive or delay sensitive biomedical data processing and analysis tasks are produced in vehicles, bringing more and more challenges to the biometric monitoring of drivers. Edge computing is a new paradigm to solve these challenges by offloading tasks from the resource-limited vehicles to Edge Servers (ESs) in Road Side Units (RSUs). However, most of the traditional offloading schedules for vehicular networks concentrate on the edge, while some tasks may be too complex for ESs to process. To this end, we consider a collaborative vehicular network in which the cloud, edge and terminal can cooperate with each other to accomplish the tasks. The vehicles can offload the computation intensive tasks to the cloud to save the resource of edge. We further construct the virtual resource pool which can integrate the resource of multiple ESs since some regions may be covered by multiple RSUs. In this paper, we propose a Multi-Scenario offloading schedule for biomedical data processing and analysis in Cloud-Edge-Terminal collaborative vehicular networks called MSCET. The parameters of the proposed MSCET are optimized to maximize the system utility. We also conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the proposed MSCET and the results illustrate that MSCET outperforms other existing schedules. © 2004-2012 IEEE.

Multi-aspect annotation and analysis of Nepali tweets on anti-establishment election discourse

- Rauniyar, Kritesh, Poudel, Sweta, Shiwakoti, Shuvam, Thapa, Surendrabikram, Rashid, Junaid, Kim, Jungeun, Imran, Muhammad, Naseem, Usman

  • Authors: Rauniyar, Kritesh , Poudel, Sweta , Shiwakoti, Shuvam , Thapa, Surendrabikram , Rashid, Junaid , Kim, Jungeun , Imran, Muhammad , Naseem, Usman
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Access Vol. 11, no. (2023), p. 143092-143115
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  • Description: In today's social media-dominated landscape, digital platforms wield substantial influence over public opinion, particularly during crucial political events such as electoral processes. These platforms become hubs for diverse discussions, encompassing topics, reforms, and desired changes. Notably, in times of government dissatisfaction, they serve as arenas for anti-establishment discourse, highlighting the need to analyze public sentiment in these conversations. However, the analysis of such discourse is notably scarce, even in high-resource languages, and entirely non-existent in the context of the Nepali language. To address this critical gap, we present Nepal Anti Establishment discourse Tweets (NAET), a novel dataset comprising 4,445 multi-aspect annotated Nepali tweets, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of political conversations. Our contributions encompass evaluating tweet relevance, sentiment, and satire, while also exploring the presence of hate speech, identifying its targets, and distinguishing directed and non-directed expressions. Additionally, we investigate hope speech, an underexplored aspect crucial in the context of anti-establishment discourse, as it reflects the aspirations and expectations from new political figures and parties. Furthermore, we set NLP-based baselines for all these tasks. To ensure a holistic analysis, we also employ topic modeling, a powerful technique that helps us identify and understand the prevalent themes and patterns emerging from the discourse. Our research thus presents a comprehensive and multi-faceted perspective on anti-establishment election discourse in a low-resource language setting. The dataset is publicly available, facilitating in-depth analysis of political tweets in Nepali discourse and further advancing NLP research for the Nepali language through labeled data and baselines for various NLP tasks. The dataset for this work is made available at https://github.com/rkritesh210/NAET. © 2013 IEEE.

Multi-dataset hyper-cnn for hyperspectral image segmentation of remote sensing images

- Liu, Li, Awwad, Emad, Ali, Yasser, Al-Razgan, Muna, Maarouf, Ali, Abualigah, Laith, Hoshyar, Azadeh

  • Authors: Liu, Li , Awwad, Emad , Ali, Yasser , Al-Razgan, Muna , Maarouf, Ali , Abualigah, Laith , Hoshyar, Azadeh
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Processes Vol. 11, no. 2 (2023), p.
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  • Description: This research paper presents novel condensed CNN architecture for the recognition of multispectral images, which has been developed to address the lack of attention paid to neural network designs for multispectral and hyperspectral photography in comparison to RGB photographs. The proposed architecture is able to recognize 10-band multispectral images and has fewer parameters than popular deep designs, such as ResNet and DenseNet, thanks to recent advancements in more efficient smaller CNNs. The proposed architecture is trained from scratch, and it outperforms a comparable network that was trained on RGB images in terms of accuracy and efficiency. The study also demonstrates the use of a Bayesian variant of CNN architecture to show that a network able to process multispectral information greatly reduces the uncertainty associated with class predictions in comparison to standard RGB images. The results of the study are demonstrated by comparing the accuracy of the network’s predictions to the images. © 2023 by the authors.

Multi-slope path loss model-based performance assessment of heterogeneous cellular network in 5G

- Dahri, Safia, Shaikh, Muhammad, Alhussein, Musaed, Soomro, Muhammad, Aurangzeb, Khursheed, Imran, Muhammad

  • Authors: Dahri, Safia , Shaikh, Muhammad , Alhussein, Musaed , Soomro, Muhammad , Aurangzeb, Khursheed , Imran, Muhammad
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Access Vol. 11, no. (2023), p. 30473-30485
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  • Description: The coverage and capacity required for fifth generation (5G) and beyond can be achieved using heterogeneous wireless networks. This exploration set up a limited number of user equipment (UEs) while taking into account the three-dimensional (3D) distance between UEs and base stations (BSs), multi-slope line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (n-LOS), idle mode capability (IMC), and third generation partnership projects (3GPP) path loss (PL) models. In the current work, we examine the relationship between the height and gain of the macro (M) and pico (P) base stations (BSs) antennas and the ratio of the density of the MBSs to the PBSs, indicated by the symbol $\beta $. Recent research demonstrates that the antenna height of PBSs should be kept to a minimum to get the best performance in terms of coverage and capacity for a 5G wireless network, whereas ASE smashes as $\beta $ crosses a specific value in 5G. We aim to address these issues and increased the performance of the 5G network by installing directional antennas at MBSs and omnidirectional antennas at Pico BSs while taking into consideration traditional antenna heights. The authors of this work used the multi-tier 3GPP PL model to take into account real-world scenarios and calculated SINR using average power. This study demonstrates that, when the multi-slope 3GPP PL model is used and directional antennas are installed at MBSs, coverage can be improved 10% and area spectral efficiency (ASE) can be improved 2.5 times over the course of the previous analysis. Similarly to this, the issue of an ASE crash after a base station density of 1000 has been resolved in this study. © 2013 IEEE.

Multidisciplinary simulation training for Australian perioperative teams : a qualitative descriptive exploratory study

- Hibberson, Michelle, Lawton, Jessica, Whitehead, Dean

  • Authors: Hibberson, Michelle , Lawton, Jessica , Whitehead, Dean
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Perioperative Nursing Vol. 36, no. 4 (2023), p. e-14-e-35
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  • Description: Background: Perioperative units are complex and high-risk environments in which teams of multidisciplinary health care professionals work collaboratively. Multidisciplinary simulation training is a form of education that allows perioperative teams to practise the non-technical and technical skills essential for managing emergency events within the perioperative environment. Despite the benefits of multidisciplinary simulation training, there is a paucity of literature about it; therefore, this study examined the experiences of Australian multidisciplinary perioperative team members who had undertaken simulation training. Objectives: This study examined the experiences of Australian multidisciplinary perioperative team members who had undertaken multidisciplinary simulation training with the aim of: 1. identifying the enablers of and/or barriers to multidisciplinary simulation training 2. gaining insight into the frequency of training and types of scenarios used during simulation training 3. exploring the potential changes to teamwork and communication following multidisciplinary simulation training. Design: A qualitative descriptive exploratory design was adopted. Methods: Data were collected from nursing and anaesthetic participants through individual interviews using a semi-structured interview guide. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Four themes and nine subthemes were identified within the data. The themes were simulation is educational, safe space, frequency and teamwork. The subthemes were emergency scenarios, practise skills and knowledge, training novice and inexperienced staff, fear of simulation, facilitators, debriefing, available facilities, staff availability and multidisciplinarity. Conclusion: Australian perioperative teams widely used multidisciplinary simulation training to practise the technical skills needed to manage emergencies consistently. However, the frequency was variable and dependent on the availability of staff and facilities. A ‘safe space’ was vital, allowing perioperative team members to engage in training and discussions without judgement or embarrassment. Multidisciplinary simulation training is an effective training technique and should be routinely undertaken by Australian perioperative teams to develop consistency in managing emergency events within the perioperative setting. © 2023, Australian College of Perioperative Nurses. All rights reserved.

Navigating interoperability in disaster management : insights of current trends and challenges in Saudi Arabia

- Mani, Zakaria, Sultan, Mohammed, Plummer, Virginia, Goniewicz, Krzysztof

  • Authors: Mani, Zakaria , Sultan, Mohammed , Plummer, Virginia , Goniewicz, Krzysztof
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Disaster Risk Science Vol. 14, no. 6 (2023), p. 873-885
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  • Description: In this rapid review, we critically scrutinize the disaster management infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, illuminating pivotal issues of interoperability, global cooperation, established procedures, community readiness, and the integration of cutting-edge technologies. Our exploration uncovers a significant convergence with international benchmarks, while pinpointing areas primed for enhancement. We recognize that continual commitments to infrastructural progression and technology adoption are indispensable. Moreover, we underscore the value of robust community involvement and cross-border collaborations as key factors in bolstering disaster response capabilities. Importantly, we spotlight the transformative influence of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, in elevating the effectiveness of disaster management strategies. Our review champions in all-encompassing approach to disaster management, which entails harnessing innovative technologies, nurturing resilient communities, and promoting comprehensive disaster management strategies, encapsulating planning, preparedness, response, and recovery. As a result of our analysis, we provide actionable recommendations to advance Saudi Arabia’s disaster management framework. Our insights are timely and crucial, considering the escalating global focus on disaster response in the face of increasing disaster and humanitarian events. © 2023, The Author(s).

Navigating the neo-academy : experiences of liminality and identity construction among early career researchers at one Australian regional university

- Larsen, Ellen, Brandenburg, Robyn

  • Authors: Larsen, Ellen , Brandenburg, Robyn
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 50, no. 4 (2023), p. 1069-1087
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  • Description: Across the world, many university-based early career researchers (ECRs) are experiencing an unprecedented intensification of research expectations on transition from doctoral research to academic life. Countries such as Australia have put into place national frameworks of research excellence to remain globally competitive. Pressure on universities to elevate global research rankings has soared, with many regional universities and disciplines such as education responding with a rapid escalation of research performance expectations for academics. Consequently, concerns have been raised for ECRs embroiled in intensified research agendas in these contexts. Framed by concepts of liminality and identity construction, we argue that intensified expectations do not take account of liminality experienced by ECRs during times of transition, compromising perceived academic progress. We report on the identity journeys of ECRs in a School of Education at one regional Australian university. Data was collected from nine ECRs using online focus groups and analysed using a hybrid thematic approach. Key findings indicate that ECRs transition into the Academy post-doctorate with varying experiences of identity liminality that impact their capacity to manage research expectations. ECRs experiencing shorter periods of liminality are best positioned to manage the intensified expectations of academic life while ECRs experiencing persistent liminality and identity ‘struggle’ are more likely to perceive a diminished sense of achievement and support. These findings have significant implications for university leadership and research supervisors, in Australia and globally, regarding the ways they support ECRs to productively navigate the hyper-invigilated audit cultures of what we have termed the neo-academy. © 2022, The Author(s).

Nonsmooth optimization-based hyperparameter-free neural networks for large-scale regression

- Karmitsa, Napsu, Taheri, Sona, Joki, Kaisa, Paasivirta, Pauliina, Defterdarovic, J., Bagirov, Adil, Mäkelä, Marko

  • Authors: Karmitsa, Napsu , Taheri, Sona , Joki, Kaisa , Paasivirta, Pauliina , Defterdarovic, J. , Bagirov, Adil , Mäkelä, Marko
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Algorithms Vol. 16, no. 9 (2023), p.
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190100580
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  • Description: In this paper, a new nonsmooth optimization-based algorithm for solving large-scale regression problems is introduced. The regression problem is modeled as fully-connected feedforward neural networks with one hidden layer, piecewise linear activation, and the (Formula presented.) -loss functions. A modified version of the limited memory bundle method is applied to minimize this nonsmooth objective. In addition, a novel constructive approach for automated determination of the proper number of hidden nodes is developed. Finally, large real-world data sets are used to evaluate the proposed algorithm and to compare it with some state-of-the-art neural network algorithms for regression. The results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm as a predictive tool in most data sets used in numerical experiments. © 2023 by the authors.

Numerical model of cloud-to-ground lightning for pyroCb thunderstorms

- Barman, Surajit, Shah, Rakibuzzaman, Islam, Syed, Kumar, Apurv

  • Authors: Barman, Surajit , Shah, Rakibuzzaman , Islam, Syed , Kumar, Apurv
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing Vol. 16, no. (2023), p. 8689-8701
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  • Description: This paper demonstrates a 2-D numerical model to represent two conceptual pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) thundercloud structures: i) tilted dipole and ii) tripole structure with enhanced lower positive charge layer, which are hypothesized to explain the occurrence of lightning flashes in pyroCb storms created from severe wildfire events. The presented model considers more realistic thundercloud charge structures to investigate the electrical states and determine surface charge density for identifying potential lightning strike areas on Earth. Simulation results on dipole structure-based pyroCb thunderclouds confirm that the wind-shear extension of its upper positive (UP) charge layer by 2-8 km reduces the electric field and indicates the initiation of negative surface charge density around the earth periphery underneath the anvil cloud. These corresponding lateral extensions have confined the probable striking zone of-CG and +CG lightning within 0-23.5 km and 23.5-30 km in the simulation domain. In contrast, pyroCb thundercloud possessing the tripole structure with enhanced lower positive charge develops a negative electric field at the cloud's bottom part to block the progression of downward negative leader and cause the surface charge density beneath the thundercloud to become negative, which would lead to the formation of +CG flashes. Later, a parametric study is conducted assuming a positive linear correlation between the charge density and aerosol concentration to examine the effect of high aerosol concentration on surface charge density in both pyroCb thunderclouds. The proposed model can be expanded into 3-D to simulate lightning leader movement, aiding wildfire risk management. © 2008-2012 IEEE.

Nurses transitioning to primary health care in Australia : a practice improvement initiative

- Cox, Rebekah, Robinson, Tracy, Rossiter, Rachel, Collison, Lisa, Hills, Danny

  • Authors: Cox, Rebekah , Robinson, Tracy , Rossiter, Rachel , Collison, Lisa , Hills, Danny
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: SAGE Open Nursing Vol. 9, no. (2023), p.
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  • Description: Introduction: Current nursing programs provide little pre-registration information and clinical exposure to primary health care nursing practice. Newly graduated nurses and those transitioning to primary health care report disorientation and confusion. Limited knowledge about the ideal elements of a program to support transitioning nurses is an imperative to understand how best to support nurses during this period. The peak body for nurses in primary health care was funded to develop and implement a 1-year transition to practice improvement initiative for nurses in Australia about to be employed in or who are new to primary health care. This quality improvement evaluation study aimed to determine the impact of the transition program on participants’ nursing knowledge, skills, and confidence, and their overall satisfaction with the program. Methods: A mixed methods evaluation of the project utilized data from online pre- and post-participation surveys, mentor meetings, and field notes. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were employed for quantitative items. Free text and field notes were subject to broad thematic analysis. Findings from qualitative and quantitative data were triangulated. Results: Ninety-three nurse participants and 62 mentors were recruited. There were statistically significant differences between mean summed post-completion and pre-completion self-assessment rating scores for knowledge, skills, and confidence. Program elements were well received. The orientation workshop, mentoring, and education activities were identified as most influential in supporting transition. The self-assessment framework was identified as least influential. Conclusion: A 12-month transition program was effective in building the knowledge, skills, and confidence of participants to deliver comprehensive and effective nursing services. © The Author(s) 2023.

Nurses' perspectives on medication errors and prevention strategies in residential aged care facilities through a national survey

- Kuppadakkath, Subhash, Bhowmik, Jahar, Olasoji, Michael, Garvey, Loretta

  • Authors: Kuppadakkath, Subhash , Bhowmik, Jahar , Olasoji, Michael , Garvey, Loretta
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Older People Nursing Vol. 18, no. 6 (2023), p.
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  • Description: Background: Medication errors are common in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) due to several factors. Effective medication management is essential to prevent medication errors among older people particularly due to the complexity of co-morbidities they can experience. Objectives: This study aimed to examine and quantify the contributing factors of medication errors from nurses' perspectives and the prevention strategies to reduce medication errors among older adults living in RACFs. Methods: A survey with 140 completed responses from registered nurses (RNs) and endorsed enrolled nurses (EENs) working in RACFs across Australia were included in the study. The survey had 24 items, related to contributing factors of medication errors, and the prevention strategies. Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis were used in the data analysis process. Results: The study identified medication errors are caused by contributing factors such as use of agency staffing (70.4%) and delays in receipt of laboratory results (94.3%). However, it also identified suggestions to reduce medication errors in RACFs, for example use of electronic alerts (88.3%), and efficient laboratory communication (91.8%). Our results revealed three key factors for causes (workload, interprofessional involvement and interruptions) and suggestions (medication safety alerts, medication process improvement and effective reporting). Conclusion: Medication errors in RACFs are a global problem being one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. The knowledge and awareness of the factors associated with medication errors and the prevention strategies can guide potential quality improvement plans and contribute to minimisation of risk associated with medication safety in RACFs. Implications for practice: The study recommends strategies for best practices in medication management such as interprofessional collaboration, implementing standardised policies and electronic alerts to reduce medication errors in RACFs. © 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Older People Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Obfuscated memory malware detection in resource-constrained iot devices for smart city applications

- Shafin, Sakib, Karmakar, Gour, Mareels, Iven

  • Authors: Shafin, Sakib , Karmakar, Gour , Mareels, Iven
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Sensors Vol. 23, no. 11 (2023), p. 5348
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  • Description: Obfuscated Memory Malware (OMM) presents significant threats to interconnected systems, including smart city applications, for its ability to evade detection through concealment tactics. Existing OMM detection methods primarily focus on binary detection. Their multiclass versions consider a few families only and, thereby, fail to detect much existing and emerging malware. Moreover, their large memory size makes them unsuitable to be executed in resource-constrained embedded/IoT devices. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a multiclass but lightweight malware detection method capable of identifying recent malware and is suitable to execute in embedded devices. For this, the method considers a hybrid model by combining the feature-learning capabilities of convolutional neural networks with the temporal modeling advantage of bidirectional long short-term memory. The proposed architecture exhibits compact size and fast processing speed, making it suitable for deployment in IoT devices that constitute the major components of smart city systems. Extensive experiments with the recent CIC-Malmem-2022 OMM dataset demonstrate that our method outperforms other machine learning-based models proposed in the literature in both detecting OMM and identifying specific attack types. Our proposed method thus offers a robust yet compact model executable in IoT devices for defending against obfuscated malware.

Occupational characteristics and disability-free survival after retirement age : an exploratory analysis from the ASPREE study

- Alif, Sheikh, Benke, Geza, Ronaldson, Kathlyn, Walker-Bone, Karen, Woods, Robyn, Tran, Cammie, Beilin, Lawrence, Tonkin, Andrew, Owen, Alice, McNeil, John

  • Authors: Alif, Sheikh , Benke, Geza , Ronaldson, Kathlyn , Walker-Bone, Karen , Woods, Robyn , Tran, Cammie , Beilin, Lawrence , Tonkin, Andrew , Owen, Alice , McNeil, John
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Frontiers in Public Health Vol. 11, no. (2023), p.
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  • Description: Background: Certain occupational characteristics have been linked with poor health and reduced longevity. However, the association between occupational characteristics and survival free of disability in a post-retirement age group has not been investigated. Methods: We investigated outcomes in 12,215 healthy older Australian adults in the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) and ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older Persons (ALSOP) sub-study. The ISCO-88 major occupational groups, settings, and activity levels were assigned based on free-text job descriptions. The Finnish Job Exposure Matrix was used to assign occupational characteristics to the three longest-held jobs. The primary endpoint, disability-free survival, was defined as a composite measure of death, dementia, or persistent physical disability. The endpoint of all-cause mortality was analyzed separately. Because of multiple exploratory analyses, only those associations with a two-sided value of p less than 0.005 were considered statistically significant. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate adjusted hazard ratios. Results: Having worked in an ‘elementary’ occupation was associated with a reduction in disability-free survival. A specific impact on disability-free survival was observed among those whose work had involved high accident risk and adverse social climate. No significant relationship was identified with those previously exposed to sedentary work, vigorous physical activity, work primarily outdoors, or a range of other occupational characteristics. All-cause mortality was not increased among any of the occupational groups. Conclusion: This exploratory study found a reduction in disability-free survival among people who worked in ‘elementary’ occupations, with specific risks associated with occupations involving high accident risks and adverse social climate. Copyright © 2023 Alif, Benke, Ronaldson, Walker-Bone, Woods, Tran, Beilin, Tonkin, Owen and McNeil.

Older adults' preferences for Internet-based services : type and content

- Klein, Britt, Shandley, Kerrie, McLaren, Suzanne, Clinnick, Lisa

  • Authors: Klein, Britt , Shandley, Kerrie , McLaren, Suzanne , Clinnick, Lisa
  • Date: 2023
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Australasian Journal on Ageing Vol. 42, no. 4 (2023), p. 780-785
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  • Description: Objective(s): The aim of this paper was to report on qualitative survey responses provided by older Australian adults regarding their preferences for Internet-based services and content. Methods: Two qualitative questions (‘What type of Internet-based mental health and well-being (1) services, and (2) content would be of most interest to you?’) from a broader survey investigating the mental and physical health of older Australians were thematically analysed for commonly occurring themes. Eighty-nine participants aged 65 years or older (mean age = 71 years, SD = 5.30) responded to at least one qualitative question. Participants were primarily female (60%, n = 53), born in Australia (65%, n = 58), in a relationship (58%, n = 52), living in the community (79%, n = 70) and relatively well educated, with the majority having completed a university degree (38%, n = 34). Results: Themes indicated that participants were most interested in Facebook-style services (n = 17), chat groups (n = 16) and email-based services (n = 4) designed specifically for older adults (n = 14). However, some concerns were raised regarding the trustworthiness of Internet-based services, with the largest proportion of participants (n = 22) noting that they were unlikely to use Internet- or social media-based services. The primary content-related themes were mental fitness (n = 34), grief and loss (n = 20), health information (n = 13), socialisation (n = 11) and physical fitness (n = 10). Conclusions: Participants indicated interest in tailor-made Facebook-style services for older adults that allow them to communicate with their peers and create new social networks and incorporate content relating to strategies for working on mental and physical fitness, information on coping with grief and loss, as well as health information. These findings can be used by organisations to develop Internet-based services and content for older Australian adults. © 2023 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AJA Inc’.